Select one passage from each of two different texts and show readers how these passages are in conversation about either a) some Enlightenment idea or 2) origin stories . The connection you make should draw from the information in the modules, i.e. an Enlightenment connection, an origin story connection, a connection using one of the reading and thinking questions from the module, etc. The important thing is that your connection be clearly related to the course materials and clearly articulated in your essay.
Choose two quotations total from any two different texts, including Franklin’s Autobiography, Equiano’s Narrative, Occom’s Short History, Wheatley’s poems, Jefferson’s draft Declaration, and Crevecouer’s Letters from an American Farmer (3, 9). (Note: quotes of about 5-7 lines are best.) Transcribe these quotations at the top of your page. Transcribe exactly as the words and punctuation marks are written. Explain how these quotations speak to each other. How does one passage challenge, uphold, or complicate the other? (Say it in one sentence as your thesis.) In your essay, show your readers how the words in the quotations you chose are connected to Enlightenment ideas or American origin stories. How does this one example connect to other similar examples of Enlightenment or American origins in these two texts? Also an option: Yes, you may use one of the modern poems about Wheatley from Young, Jeffers, or Jordan next to one of Wheatley’s poems.
